Jerry Seib: Obama Seeks to Mend Saudi Relationship

3/28/2014 6:00AM

President Obama is headed to Saudi Arabia to meet with King Abdullah in an attempt to calm fears of regional unrest. The Saudi government does not believe the United States is doing enough to maintain stability in Egypt, Iran, Syria and other combative states in the Middle East.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

the ... what is overseas ... this week prison Obama stopping unsteady Arabian Sea Saudi King Abdullah ... is doing this is a kind of a fence mending mission because relations between the U S and Saudi Arabia pretense right now why are they tense company the three reasons and then one giant reason the three reason star with Syria ... the Saudis would like us to be much more assertive in helping them get rid of their enemy President Assad of Syria they want more help to the Syrian opposition in the Sobel wore their ... second reason is Egypt the Saudis are upset that U S The was a more supportive of President Mubarak they're upset that he was supportive of the Muslim Brotherhood the president of Mark's Place ... and it like the US to be more supportive right now general CC the military ruler who's running the country ... third reason is Iran ... the Saudis see Iran as a mortal enemy and are afraid that the nuclear negotiations that the US is having with Iran and will be in place ... a nuclear infrastructure in Iran that can be a threat down the road ... when you get all these together you get to the giant reason the Saudis are unhappy and easy right now it is this ... they think the region is dividing into a kind of ... the Saudi and Egyptian led Sunni bloc purses than Iranian led Shiite bloc ... and that there's a kind of a mortal struggle underway between those two giant forces ... for the future of the region and they think the US is not being supportive enough of its friends ... in the Sunni bloc ... the question of this visit is can scan present Obama say something the reassurance Audi's one that larger issue as well as some of the smaller ones ...